1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to electronic devices with touch panels, and more particularly, to a method of adjusting the size of a touch area of a touch panel corresponding to a function of an electronic device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many newly developed electronic devices, such as mobile phones, incorporate touch screen technology in their displays. This allows greater flexibility, as a user merely needs to touch an icon corresponding to a particular function for selecting that function, rather than using a traditional keyboard display to scroll between many functions. Unfortunately, there will always be a trade-off between a number of functions that can be displayed at a given time and a size and weight of the mobile phone. At a certain point, the portability of the mobile phone will be affected by a large number of functions requiring an increased display screen size. Manufacturers must therefore come up with innovative ways of allowing increased functions while maintaining the lightweight and portable advantages of the mobile phone (or any electronic portable device).
Some devices utilize displays wherein icons that are close together respond to different movements: for example, selecting a function corresponding to an icon when the touch screen is tapped with a single finger; when two fingers are moved on the touch screen in a scrolling fashion, scrolling through the display on the display screen. A problem still arises, however, when the icons are too numerous to allow easy selection. Please refer to FIG. 1, which is a diagram of a traditional touch panel 100. As can be seen at the bottom of the display, a ‘zoom’ bar 104 is displayed directly below a bar 102 containing various icons corresponding to a menu of the touch screen 100. The zoom bar 104 is designed to be operated by fingers moving in a scrolling fashion (sliding motion) whereas the menu bar 102 icons respond to a stationary touch. If, however, a user accidentally uses the scrolling motion in an area that does not correspond to the zoom bar 104 because the zoom bar 104 is too small, the zoom bar function will fail to respond. In a system that does not take advantage of the different movements used for selecting different functions, the user will erroneously select the menu bar 102.